Completes Successful Trials with Digi, Indosat, Airtel, and Globe Telecom; Commits to GSMA Standards

Mountain View CA, 12th November 2007: Bubble Motion, the pioneer and global leader of ‘voice SMS’, today announced the launch of InterCONNECT, the first platform for enabling 'voice SMS' interoperability between any operator globally. The Company has also committed to enabling full interoperability between alternative ‘voice SMS’ providers by opening the BubbleTALK APIs for direct connectivity and by engaging in standards-creation with the GSM Association.

“For ‘voice SMS’ to grow exponentially like text SMS, we must have true interoperability – not only between our own operator partners, but for all operators with ‘voice SMS’ deployments,” said Thomas Clayton, CEO & President of Bubble Motion.  “Users should be able to send Bubble messages to any of their friends, regardless of which operator service their friend might be using.” 

Bubble Motion has established a clear and easy-to-understand economic framework for any new operator to instantly connect to the BubbleTALK network.  This allows a revenue-sharing framework that is easy to understand and will benefit all of the operator partners. 

InterCONNECT between BubbleTALK operators

Bubble Motion’s InterCONNECT offering connects multiple operators who have deployed the BubbleTALK service for their end-users.  Digi in Malaysia and Indosat in Indonesia, both Bubble Motion partners, recently completed a successful InterCONNECT trial.  Both operators conducted end to end calls in the same manner as they would for local voice SMS to ensure that the user experience is seamless.

Bubble Motion’s InterCONNECT product has also shown great benefit for operators with multiple deployment instances.  Bharti Airtel, India’s largest mobile operator, has recently connected all regions of India to enable seamless sending and receiving of BubbleTALK messages. 

Interoperability between BubbleTALK and alternative ‘voice SMS’ solutions

Bubble Motion is also committed to interoperating with operators who have deployed alternative ‘voice SMS’ solutions.  This interoperability will be achieved via both full support of the GSMA ‘voice SMS’ standard in development, as well as by opening the BubbleTALK APIs for direct connectivity.  This direct connectivity will provide a number of additional benefits and enhanced features for operators and their end-users. 

“Bubble Motion is fully committed to the GSM Association standards, and we have been part of the standards body working group from the outset,” said Tom Clayton.   “Our launch today confirms that as the market leader, we are committed to openness and interoperability to drive the whole market forward.”

Globe Telecom, the second largest mobile operator in the Philippines, has deployed their own ‘voice SMS’ solution, and recently conducted a successful trial connecting with the BubbleTALK service. 

“We look forward to continuing to work with existing and new operators for global InterCONNECT and interoperability.  We are convinced that ‘voice SMS’ is poised for explosive growth, and the BubbleTALK network has grown to well over one hundred million subscribers and message traffic continues to grow even more significantly with every new partner,” said Tom Clayton.